June 18, 2020

June 19, 2020

June 22, 2020

June 23, 2020

June 24, 2020

COVID-19 Update

Graduation:

At this time a graduation ceremony is being planned for Sunday, June 28th. Plans are tentative and will depend on future guidelines provided by the CDC, Iowa Department of Public Health, and Governor Reynolds. More information will be provided in future updates.

Voluntary Educational Enrichment:

We will be continuing Voluntary Educational Enrichment for students until May 29th. We highly encourage all students to take part in this learning. Participation will give students the best chance to be successful when we return to school in the fall.

Chromebook Return:

We have designated June 1st and June 2nd as the days that students in grades 1st - 8th and current 12th graders will need to turn in their chromebooks. This event will take place at the Greene County Elementary from 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM each day. A reminder of this information will be shared throughout May.

As a school district, we have had many discussions about how to handle the end of the 2019-2020 school year and what it looks like moving forward to the 2020-2021 school year.

PK-8:

It is our intent that all students in grades PK-8 will be advanced to the next grade level. At Greene County CSD, we do not believe retention is the best course of action for students and will promote all children to the next grade level. There is strong research, in fact, that holding children back does not have long-lasting benefits for most. As we have always done we will take each child where they are at and work with them to improve their skills from there. Teachers will be meeting with grade level teachers above and below them to discuss content that was not covered in the spring and will make sure students receive that content in the fall. No child is ahead; no child is behind; each child is where they need to be right now.

The only students that will be considered for retention will be those students that were being considered prior to the school closure. Teachers, principals and counselors make decisions to promote or retain a student while keeping the best interest of the child in mind. If in the judgement of the teacher, principal and counselor, a student is prepared, given the student’s demonstration of knowledge and skills prior to the school closure, to participate successfully in the next higher grade, then the child should be promoted. The general standards for promotion decisions should be discussed jointly between the school’s teachers, counselors, principal and parents.

9-11:

At the 9-11 grade levels, we are faced with a dilemma. On one hand, we do not want students to be negatively impacted for something they had no control over, and on the other hand, we want to make sure students have the necessary prerequisite knowledge and skills to be successful in future classes, college, and jobs/careers.

After much discussion, we will be recommending moving forward with the following concept:

Credit

All students 9-11 will receive credit for the third trimester courses they were enrolled in. They will receive a P (passing) which will not positively or negatively impact their GPA.

Students taking part in a “Job Shadow” experience is an element of our required Public Speaking class as well as an element of our District Career Guidance Plan. 11th grade students currently enrolled in Public Speaking class will not be required to retake Public Speaking class for credit, but will be required to complete the “Job Shadow” component of the class at some point during their Senior Year.

Prerequisite Courses

Students were enrolled in 21 courses during the 3rd trimester that were considered prerequisites for a next level course. With the number of students enrolled in these courses, 484 future course requests are potentially affected.

Prerequisite requirements will be waived for CTE and Fine Arts classes. In the CTE and Fine Arts areas, a significant amount of individualized teaching/learning currently takes place and we believe that teachers will be able to provide the individualization necessary to catch students up.

9th and 10th Grade ELA (English Language Arts) standards are the same with varying degrees of complexity. Teachers are already individualizing student learning and will continue to do so in order to ensure students have mastered the essential standards.

Although we have students work through Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II in that order, Algebra I is not a precursor to Geometry and Geometry is not a precursor to Algebra II. Students will have the necessary knowledge to move between these courses.

Similar to the Math courses cited, Biology is typically taken prior to Chemistry, but is not a precursor. Students will have the necessary knowledge to move between these courses.

Foreign Language courses have similarities to ELA (English Language Arts) in the standards are similar but become more complex. Teachers currently do extensive individualizing for students and will continue to individualize in order to catch students up.

The four courses of particular concern are Pre-Calculus, AP(Advanced Placement) Calculus, Advanced Chemistry and Physics. To be successful in these courses, students need to demonstrate proficiency in the preceding course in order to move on and be successful. These classroom teachers will be working to develop proficiency assessments that students will be asked to complete prior to taking one of these classes. If a student chooses not to take the assessment or fails the assessment they will be required to take the prerequisite course in the 2020-2021 school year before they will be allowed to enroll in one of these four courses.

Any student wishing to retake a 3rd trimester course will have that option. The course they retake will be reflected on their transcript and GPA, and the original course will be changed to an elective credit.

Report Cards:

We do not intend to mail out report cards. Information for students in grades 5-12 may be accessed through Infinite Campus.

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It is the policy of the Greene County Community School District not to illegally discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, creed, age (for employment), marital status (for programs), sexual orientation, gender identity and socioeconomic status (for programs) in its educational programs and its employment practices. There is a grievance procedure for processing complaints of discrimination. If you have questions or a grievance related to this policy please contact the district’s Equity Coordinator, Emily Gannon, 101 Ram Drive Jefferson, IA 50129, (515) 386-2188, gannone@greenecountycsd.net